Final Report Part 2: Origami Pop-Up Diary

Overall, I am pleased with my pop-up book. The scenes are what I expected them to be and have as much detail as I had planned. It is a bit different from what I initially intended.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to bind the book. At first I wanted to go with a traditionally bound book style, where the pages turn from the right side to the left. In the end, the accordion style was easiest for my materials. In fact, I believe it gave the book an additional dynamic dimension. Namely, the pages themselves are dynamic by the way they flip front-to-back. I like how I can add more pages with time. It can really be a diary in this sense and not just a book. The book binding satisfies several design goals: origami only, interesting movement, and the ability to grow with time.

How the public reacted…

My friends and family thought the concept with cool and admired my patience with origami. It didn’t get too much attention at Expo though. That’s okay though.

What I learned…

Paper shows wear and tear more than other materials. Working with delicate materials is hard and slows down the design process significantly. However, I was going for a dainty look.

Time management is so important on a solo project.

Patience is necessary when learning a new skill. Practice makes perfect.

What’s next…

If I choose to, I can totally add more pages to the book. I just have to fold that page into the book.

What I would change…

Initially, I wanted to make the book a lot larger. The paper needed to make a 12 in x 12 in page would be about 24 in x 24 in. My Boulder apartment isn’t much bigger than that. J Due to a lack of a large at home work space, I opted for a small book. If I make another in the future, I may play around with paper type/size as well as create more intricate scenes with more complex pop-up mechanisms. In the end, I’m very happy with how my origami diary turned out.

I think it’s great that you pushed yourself to work on and conquer a new skill. I think the neatest feature of the diary is that you can add more to it over time — I love your solution for binding the diary. I sort of wish that there were some pictures of your project at expo in this post. It’s clear that you worked very hard to create and reflect on your project, it looked amazing!